Gone
by Dasi Miotti
Summary: Tucker is gone, and Danny's life has been spiraling down ever since. After a year of no Phantom, a thought-to-be vanquished enemy returns for bloodthirsty revenge. Can Danny handle it? Rated T just in case I get Danny and Sam together. Giggity.
1. Chapter 1

**I wrote this a long time ago and found it while trying to find my English essay. Didn't find the essay… but I think this is better than it. Ha. **

**Disclaimer- DP owned by Butch Hartmann… not me. Yup. Plot's mine though. **

**Happy reading!**

"_Danny! NO!" screamed Sam, horrified, as the bullet wound its way through the alleys, straight toward Danny. _

_ "It's a marked bullet! They always find their mark!" Tucker screamed. It was obviously from Vlad, whose human form was stripped of him just recently. He was 100% ghost, all because of a certain halfa. _

_ Danny struggled to get up after several blows to the head. He could not change to his ghost self. Thinking instinctively, Tucker jumped in front of the bullet. _

_ "NO!" Sam shouted. Right before her eyes, she witnessed the bullet shooting straight through Tucker's glasses and into his head. The 15 year old boy slunk to the ground, unable to even groan. After mere seconds, he was dead. _

_ Danny stared in shock at his now dead best friend; his best friend for ten years. After the first tear slipped down his cheek, they did not stop. He fell to his knees, face in his hands. Sam ran to Tucker's body. _

_ "Oh my God… Tucker!" she sobbed, barely coherent. She cradled his head, the tears unable to stop. She gasped for breath and shuddered, but even more tears came._

_ Sam and Danny embraced, weeping for their lost friend. What did they do to deserve this? No, what did Tucker do to deserve this? They sat by their best friend in silent vigil, not wanting to leave; not caring about or noticing the buckets of rain that had started to fall around them. He was dead. He was dead and gone. _

ONE YEAR LATER

Danny shoved his way through the hallway, keeping his head down. He pulled the hood from his black hoodie from his head and shook the rain from the rest of him. Rain made him depressed. It was rain that reminded Danny of… him.

He wove his way through several of his fellow pupils. They laughed and talked as if nothing bad happened in this world. People die. People hate. Most people are oblivious that it happens to everyone, even the most innocent. This world was so ignorant. Those laughing teenagers have probably never lost their best friend all because of them. Danny never let himself forget about that. If he hadn't stripped Vlad of his human half, he, Vlad, would never have pulled that trigger. Tucker would be alive. Danny used that fact to punish himself whenever he did something wrong. Whenever he was feeling down on himself, which was becoming more and more often, he reminded himself of this repeatedly.

_It was me… it's my fault… he's dead because of me… if I wasn't alive, he would be… he is now dead because of… me…_

He reached his locker, flipped through the combination and exchanged his backpack for his first period binder. He passed more people. No one gave him a second glance. When he started wearing more black clothing, people gradually stopped paying attention to him. Danny who? Oh yeah, that gloomy junior.

Why not be gloomy? His whole life was full to the brim of gloom. Ever since Tucker passed, Danny didn't live a single day without thinking of him. More and more ghosts haunted Amity Park, but Danny didn't care. Ghosts weren't important to him anymore. He hadn't been Danny Phantom since that day. What's the point? He never saw a point. Just live life. Live now. Live, while others don't.

"Hey Danny, wait!" said a feminine voice from behind him. He quickened his pace. He knew the voice. Sam Manson. He had been in love with her, once upon a time. He didn't need friends or girlfriends anymore.

He wondered why Sam was talking to him. They had broken up shortly after Tucker's death, over a year ago. They hadn't talked since.

"Hey, Danny. You okay?" she asked when she caught up with him. She was always a bit more athletic than most girls her age.

Danny glared at her, and pulled his hood over his head again. "No," he answered simply.

"It's not your fault."

This Danny laughed at. He hadn't laughed in over a year, but this laugh was cold and mirthless. He shook his head.

"I don't think you get it, Sam. It was _me_. _I_ made Vlad all-ghost. He wanted to kill me. That's why he marked that bullet."

"Tucker saved your life, Danny!" said Sam. She hated seeing him this depressed. She knew he was convinced it was his entire fault.

"I think he made it a hell of a lot worse," Danny mumbled. He shoved his way past Sam and rushed to his period one English class. Sam stopped walking and gazed at this depressed teenager she used to be in love with. She sighed. How could she save him?

"Mr. Fenton, did you hear me?" demanded Mr. Youere, the eleventh grade English teacher.

"Huh?" Danny mumbled.

"I said take off the hood."

"Why?"

He looked outraged that Danny would even think to ask such a question.

"Because I am the teacher and I demand that you take it off!"

Danny was ready to throw a comment at the middle-aged Asian, but learned more than twice over that his actions usually resulted in some sort of consequence.

"Yes, master," he mumbled, violently pulling down his hood.

"What was that, Fenton?" Mr. Youere asked sternly, leaning down so Danny could get a full view of his face.

"I said YES, MASTER!" he shouted. He tipped his desk over and ran out the room. He knew he was going to be in major trouble, so he continued running until he was out on the street. He decided to do something he hadn't done in over a year. While running, he changed into his alter-ego, Danny Phantom, and flew away into the trees. He perched on the highest sturdiest branch he could find. Then, in the silence of the forest, he sobbed. Gasping and trembling, he wept for his lost friend.

But he was being watched. Before he knew what was happening, he was shaken out of the tree. After a hard fall of about thirty feet, Danny groaned in agony. Two polished shoes stepped hard on Danny's hands. He looked up at the owner.

"Miss me, Daniel?"

**The suspense! Sorry it's kinda short…Ch2 coming hopefully soon… I'll see how people like it. **

**~Dasi**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, here's chapter two! Again, Danny Phantom and all related characters belong to Butch Hartman and not me. **

**Chapter 2-**

Danny gasped. "Vlad!" he exclaimed.

Vlad Plasmius reached down and effortlessly hauled the sixteen-year-old off the ground till he was nose to nose with him. "So you thought you could hide away all this time as your secret identity?" he practically whispered. "You thought there wouldn't be any chance I'd give up on searching for the boy that destroyed my life? You're quite mistaken."

He threw Danny down on the rain-soaked forest floor. Danny clutched his chest, the breath knocked out of him. Vlad stepped on his arms, pinning him down. Danny bit his lip in pain, but was not about to show any other signs of weakness.

"But what you don't know, Daniel, is that all the while, as you were cowardly hiding, I've been growing stronger. And now that I've got you cornered, you haven't got a chance!"

Danny's mind finally stopped reeling long enough for him to respond.

"Hiding? I haven't been hiding!"

Vlad laughed at this as he pulled out a green ray gun. "New and improved technology. Kills humans as well as ghosts. So I knew I'd be ready for whatever form you were in when I finally met you."

This sparked a memory in Danny's mind. The green bullet racing in the alleyway, hitting his best friend with such force he had no time to utter anything….

Filled with rage at this realization, Danny twisted his arms, unbalancing Vlad.

"You killed Tucker!" Danny howled.

Vlad's eyebrows rose momentarily. "Consider yourself lucky, Daniel. It could have killed you, or your gothic girlfriend."

"He was my _best friend! _It's _just as bad!_"

Danny felt an urge to hurt this man rising up him like bile. He summoned everything—anything—and let it all loose at Vlad. Dismayed, he watched as the ball of ectoplasm he'd created bounced harmlessly off of this despicable man.

Plasmius laughed again. "Do you really think you can hurt me after a year of not using your powers?"

Danny decided then that he would do the thing he was best at: running away.

He shot up in the air and fled. He looked over his shoulder; Plasmius was still standing where he had been. Danny looked forward again and flew even faster.

Without even contemplating the matter, Danny knew this wasn't over. Vlad was merely biding his time. The real revenge had yet to come. And Danny wasn't prepared.

TRANSITION!

Danny took deep breaths and smoothed his black hair. The strands stuck out again, but this was hardly of importance.

He stood underneath the overhang of the Mansons' house and pulled down his hood. Breathing deeply again, he rapped three times on Sam's door.

He stood for a minute longer, but no one came to answer. He tried again. He was about to leave when he heard a lock being turned. His heart pounding, he waited as Sam's mother opened the door.

Danny smiled, hoping it didn't look too forced.

Mrs. Manson screamed and shut the door in Danny's face. "WE'RE BEING ROBBED!" she screeched into the contents of her home. Danny sighed. At least he knew Sam's mom hadn't changed.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard Sam's voice from where he remembered was the kitchen.

"What?" she asked skeptically.

"There's a young man outside our door!"

"That doesn't mean he's a robber, Mom."

Danny stood uncomfortably as Sam opened the door. He tried to smile. She gasped and once again the door was shut in Danny's face.

"I told you he's a robber!" Mrs. Manson said in panic.

"Mom, why don't you go to the kitchen and take some more of your medicine?" Sam gently suggested. Their footsteps faded as they retreated to the kitchen. Danny was unsure whether he should have left. He decided to wait for Sam.

Soon her footsteps returned and she was at the door again. After a few moments, she opened it.

"What do you want?" she asked sharply. She kept the door open enough just to see her face.

"I need help. Please. I know for the past year I've just been moping around and ignoring you, but I really need your help now. Please," he pleaded with her.

"Why the hell should I help you?" she whispered fiercely. She slammed the door shut.

"It's about Vlad. He's back," Danny said through the door.

Slowly, painfully slowly, Sam opened the door again.

Danny continued, rushed. "I ditched school halfway through, and I changed into you-know-who for the first time in a year. And then he came out of nowhere and swore revenge."

"You changed? And he just let you go?" Sam asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah, and yeah. I feel like he has more to come. And he has new technology and new powers."

Sam thought for a minute before replying. "You stopped using you powers for a year, and suddenly used them again, which got you into trouble. That's your own fault. Now you've come here, expecting me to suddenly forgive you and pity you and help you? No! Danny, I'm not going to do that for you. You hurt me too bad. I've got my own, new life now, and sadly, it doesn't involve ghosts. Or you."

She slammed the door again, leaving him alone on her front porch.

"FINE!" Danny screamed. He punched the door and ran away down the street, ignoring the new pain in his knuckles.

He didn't need her. What was he thinking, asking for her help? This was something he could—that he _had—_to do alone. So what if he hadn't used his powers in over a year? He could train. He could dodge Vlad. He'd done so before. He had just been a little rusty in the forest, and things had seemed so much worse. It's just Vlad. What bad could he have possibly come up with in Danny's absence?

Danny paused and remembered that gun Vlad had been holding. It killed humans and ghosts. And he obviously had some sort of ghost tracker, otherwise how would he have been able to find Danny so fast? He couldn't have had a human tracker because Danny would have been caught way sooner. After all, he _had_ been a human for over a year.

Danny began to panic. Vlad was way more advanced than he, and this unsettled him. Of course, Vlad had always been more advanced than he. But he had improved even more, while Danny had become worse.

He needed Sam. He needed Tucker, too. He clenched his fists. He had to get over Tucker. His meeting with Vlad had snapped things into perspective for Danny. Mourning over his lost friend would only make matters worse. It would not help him train. He needed to move on.

He needed Sam. More than he wanted to admit. She had always been there for him. Was it too late to repair what they once had? After all, if he showed her that he had changed, she would surely long to fight ghosts with him once more, right?

He would give her one day. In one day, he would approach her again, this time at school. No doors would slam in his face then.

SCHOOL

"No! I said it before and I'm saying it again. No!" Sam said sternly.

"But I changed! Really, I did! I had a revelation yesterday," Danny tried telling her.

"Was that before or after you left a dent in my front door?" she said scathingly.

"After!" he yelled back. But it was too late. She had slammed the door to the science room in his face.

Angry, sad, and confused, Danny ran down the hallway and out the back door. This time, rather than changing into his alter-ego, he ran all the way home.

He ran right into his house and up the stairs.

"Danny, is that you?" called the voice of Maddie, his mother.

"Yeah, Mom."

"Why are you home so early? Is it a half-day?"

"Yeah, sure."

He ran up to his room.

"But it's only 9:30!" Maddie called back. She heard his bedroom door slam. She sighed. She glanced at an old family photo. Danny was a little happy boy, smiling up at the camera with his sister, Jazz. Maddie longed for that same happy boy.

Up in his room, Danny was lying on his bed and staring at a picture of Sam. The treatment he was getting from her was leading him to believe Sam hated him. She couldn't. They had dated. They had loved each other. Why had that changed? If Danny had been willing to change for her, why wouldn't she?

He threw the picture against his wall and listened to the glass shatter. So what? She was just a girl.

Danny shook his head. What had he turned into? Before Tucker's death, if he had even smudged a picture of Sam, he would panic. This grumpy boy was not who he was.

Soon, he fell asleep with thoughts of the old days, when he, Sam, and Tucker were best friends and fought ghosts together. The days when Tucker was a goofy nerd, Sam and Danny had puppy love, and the Box Ghost invaded the Nasty Burger while the three friends ate there.

And Danny fell asleep smiling.

Hours later, he awoke as a figure loomed over him. Before he could even scream, he was hit on the head and knocked into a black world that took his senses. He was forced into a glowing blue bag and was stolen, away into the night.

**Ooh the suspense! Sorry if it was still too short. I'm pretty sure it was longer than chapter 1, however. **

**Ch3 possibly coming at some point in the future. **

**~Dasi**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three!**

**Again, all Danny Phantom characters created by Butch Hartman.**

Chapter Three

Danny awoke in confusion. His thoughts moved through his brain like molasses as he tried to figure out where he was.

The first step would be to open his eyes. He did so.

Bright light seared his retinas and he winced, closing his eyes again. It was then that he noticed his face was pressed against cold metal.

He tried opening his eyes again. The light seemed not as harsh as before. He blinked several times before looking around at his surroundings, which were few. A small uncomfortable-looking metal cot was opposite him, which led him to believe he was on such a cot.

His brain started speeding up now that he had been awake for a good twenty seconds. He realized he was tied to the cot by some sort of anti-ghost energy; every time he tried moving, it was as though someone had burned his brain with hot iron.

"Hey! What's going on!" he yelled to the small white room. No response.

Vlad Plasmius suddenly appeared in Danny's vision, smiling viciously. "Good morning, Daniel. I trust you slept well."

"No! I didn't!" Danny snarled in defiance. Vlad's expression didn't change.

"I will bring you some nourishment shortly. Have a nice day," Vlad said mock-pleasantly.

Danny was confused. Hadn't Vlad mentioned killing Danny? Why hadn't he yet? It wasn't as if Danny was particularly looking forward to his death, but, should his death be on the way, he would rather it be quick than dragged out in suspense like this.

"What are you keeping me here for?" Danny said, trying to add venom to his voice, but sounding more scared than angry.

"Patience, Daniel. In due time, you will be dead. After I rip out your human form as you'd done me, I will keep you here as a power source for my new portal. Ghost energy is highly useful for fuel. And after your energy is depleted, well, you wouldn't have much to live for after that, will you? It will be like death, I promise. But far worse." He then laughed. "As for your human half, well, let's just say humans are very easy for a ghost to exterminate. When they are completely vulnerable, that is."

Disgusted and horrified, Danny began to panic. No. No, this couldn't happen. No! "H-how long until I'm…. depleted?" He forgot to sound angry.

"That's hard to say." His smiled widened. "It's said the energy of a ghost lasts the average lifetime of a healthy human. These days, I hear it's around 80 years. You'll be here a long time, Fenton."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Danny croaked in disbelief.

Vlad laughed again. "Because, Daniel, there's not a thing you can do about it."

Leaving an astonished Danny strapped to the cot, Vlad clicked away in his shiny black shoes.

Danny was in total freak out mode. His chest heaved, causing the anti-ghost restrictor to burn his brain repeatedly. He didn't care. His brain was only focused on one thought, anyway.

_I'm never going to die… I'm going to be tortured for 80 years into non-existence… I'm never going to die… Never… die… Tucker…_

He held his breath, for he was beginning to get a headache. He tried to calm down.

He noticed with hatred how much more evil Vlad had become in the year of Danny's hiatus. This was beyond evil. This was… this was… Danny couldn't even think of a word worse than evil, partly because of the damage his head had just received, and partly due to his lack of attention paid during English class over the years.

Vlad couldn't just leave him like this. He had to let him outside to get exercise. Danny scowled at the thought of being treated like a dog. But it was true. And once Danny was free, he could overpower Vlad and escape somehow. He always had before. He needed to think. He strained his brain, only to return empty-handed.

This couldn't be. He had to get out of this. He was Danny Phantom, Inviso-bill! He fought ghosts! He was like a teenaged Spiderman in his dinky little hometown of Amity Park.

He tried to change into his ghost form. Unfortunately, the anti-ghost shock scorched his brain so badly he blacked out.

TRANSITION!

Sam paced in her bedroom. This was insanity. Danny simply could not be asking for her help. Why would he? He'd done just fine without her for over a year. What good could she do? And if he was telling the truth about Vlad, which she doubted, it was his own damn fault for leaving school and changing in broad daylight.

Yet as she tried to blame Danny, she couldn't help feeling like this was her fault. Danny had distanced himself from her after their break-up, but Sam could have talked to him instead of sulking in her room as she had done. She could have helped him through Tucker's death. He had spiraled out of control and Sam felt responsible.

She had been pondering this all morning. Finally, she decided to call him.

She slowly took out her cell phone and turned it on. After staring at it for about five minutes, she called the number she knew so well.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

It rang until Danny's voicemail declared she would need to take a message.

"Hell no," she muttered to herself, hanging up. She called his home phone number next. Also memorized.

"Hello?" it was Jack, Danny's father.

"Hey, Mr. Fenton, it's Sam Manson."

"Sam! Are you calling for Danny?" Sam briefly wondered if Danny had even told his parents of their break-up. He didn't seem surprised at all that she was calling. Maybe it was just Jack's booming personality shining through.

"Yeah, I am. Sir."

"Hold on, Sam, while I get him." She heard him put down the phone and after a few moments of silence, he picked it back up. "He seems to be out of the house. Would you like me to take a message?"

She sighed. "Just… tell him to call me back, alright?"

"Will do."

"Thanks, Mr. Fenton."

She closed her phone and absently tossed it on her bed beside her. Was it too late to mend what they once had?

TRANSITION!

Danny blearily opened his eyes, his throbbing headache making his stomach turn. A low groaning noise reached his ears, and he realized it was him.

After a moment, he remembered where he was and panicked, trying to break free of his bonds, only to be shocked once more by the burning sensation.

_Right_, he thought. _My headache._

He gazed around, oddly calm. The light from the hanging fluorescents bouncing off the white walls was enough to blind him in his pathetic state. He squeezed his eyes shut, much to the chagrin of his pulsating brain.

He knew, deep down, that he was never going to be free. Sam hated him. His parents couldn't fight a ghost to save their lives (or, their son's life, in this case). Jazz wouldn't stand a chance against Vlad. No one would.

He was doomed to lie here for the remainder of his days. All hopes of cleverly escaping were dashed the day before when Vlad had forced him on a treadmill inside a closed-off space. Indoors.

It was better to just accept his fate. He was used to gloom. He was used to depression. What a fitting end for a miserable boy.

ANOTHER TRANSITION!

The next day, Sam went to school like always, only slightly irritable.

Her third period class, American History, was normally shared with Danny. But a quick sweep of the room showed his absence. Alert, Sam waited until class started. She waited fifteen minutes after class began. Twenty. Thirty. Soon, she came to believe he wouldn't be coming.

Sure it was nothing, Sam continued on with her day as usual.

That night, she was doing her homework when her mom came into her room.

"Sweetie, it's Mrs. Fenton on the phone for you," she said, holding the house phone to her. Confused, Sam took the phone from her.

"Sam, are you there?" It was Maddie, Danny's mother. She sounded hysterical, her voice high and thick, as though she'd been crying.

"Yeah, Mrs. Fenton. What's wrong?"

"Oh, Sam, it's Danny. We haven't seen him in over a day. Do you know where he is?"

"No, I—" she started. Suddenly, though, she gasped and dropped the phone.

She recalled Danny's words from just the other day.

_It's Vlad. He's back. _

Her eyes widened.

_I feel like he has more to come. New technology. New powers. _

She slowly brought the phone back to her ear, and, in a trembling voice, said, "Mrs. Fenton, I don't know where your son is. I'm sorry." Then she pressed the 'end' button before she could respond.

Because she knew where Danny was. And it was up to her to save him.

**Hey. SO I'm real sorry and such that I haven't updated in, like, a year. I'd be surprised if anyone still reads this. :P But I hope you enjoy it anyway! I promise I'll make these updates more regular. **

**~dasi**


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